The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking input from the public on how it should dole out $3 billion on its Environmental and Climate Justice program established under Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.
The topic, which seeks to address communities most burdened by a changing environment that are typically minority and lower income, is a pillar of Democrats’ climate change agenda. But it’s one that often receives criticism from Republicans and raises questions among fiscal spending hawks.
“EPA is committed to using Inflation Reduction Act funding to make significant investments in the health, equity and resilience of all communities and to address past, current and future environmental and climate justice challenges,” Marianne Engelman-Lado, acting principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, said in a statement.
The money is for “grants and technical assistance for environmental and climate justice efforts that benefit overburdened communities,” the EPA said. It plans to make available approximately $2 billion as soon as this summer after receiving public feedback through March 17.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have described this sort of funding as fuel to the fire that is inflation.
“Wasteful spending on a radical left-wing agenda is par for the course for this administration and has led to historic inflation while Americans are experiencing declining real wages,” Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services last year questioning the role of its Office of Climate Change and Health Equity.
In November, the EPA sought similar input on how it should spend $13 billion to fight climate change and advance environmental justice. The agency is also receiving applications for $100 million it made available under two other environmental justice programs.
“For far too long, communities across our country have faced environmental injustices, bearing the brunt of toxic pollution, enduring underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and suffering disproportionate impacts from climate change,” the White House said in a statement last year following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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